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Thursday, April 1, 2010

If you blog it, they will come...

It seems like everyone is getting into the blogging action these days! Nearly every event or conference initiates a blog as part of their packaged web presence. For example, just today I received word about the archive of talks from the Networks & Enclaves conference held at UCI a few weeks ago. The conference talks were so provocative, certainly there ought to be some vigorous discussions happening in the blog affiliated with the event. But...not so.

Perhaps the larger question at hand is also how we, as scholars with limited time, can be a part of so many blog discussions while not unduly fragmenting our efforts? I'm embarrassed to reveal how many blogs I am involved with (a few dozen too many). How can I keep on top of these spaces, read important writings on not-my-blogs, and still get my research work done? Certainly using GoogleReader helps by managing my various blogfeeds, but it's not still not enough. And is there also some sort of cautionary tale at play here--about a tool that is now so widely used that it's losing some of its usefulness?

So let me ask you: how do you manage your blog reading and writing? How do you balance your engagement with social media while still getting your work done? And, are you struggling, like me, to keep up?